How can the state get medical cannabis to patients?

By Marisa Demarco

SANTA FE—Bernie Ellis has an unusual history for a proponent of medical marijuana. In the early '90s, he came to New Mexico to set up a substance-abuse program for the Centers for Disease Control. "I'm still an advocate for reducing the health effects for substance abuse," he says. "Part of the reason I can have a foot in both worlds is that I think it's criminal that we've criminalized marijuana.”

Embattled group says it hasn’t missed the deadline to register as a political committee

Potential Bureau of Elections director backs out

By Marisa Demarco

Jim Noel sent a letter to Secretary of State Mary Herrera saying he wouldn't be reporting for duty Monday, Sept. 8, after all. This leaves New Mexico without a director of the Bureau of Elections less than two months before Nov. 4.

Where was a convicted sex offender living? Who just got rearrested? The Rio Grande Zoo will have to do without ... . And what percentage of youths have driven with an impaired adult at the wheel, according to a UNM survey?

For a couple of weeks, I’ve been asking people who aren’t going to vote to contact me and tell me why. Nonvoters aren’t without opinions; they’ve got lots to say on the topic. This week is your last chance to phone me up and use me as an amplifier. Call 346-0660 x. 245 or e-mail marisa@alibi.com with a subject line of “nonvoter.”

Old Hat

Lazy writing is a scourge (scourge, a word I too often frequent) on newspapers, newscasts and media objects around the globe. At times certain words absolutely infect journalists. I guess you'd call them memes, although that term has become, well, annoying. But what else do you call this cultural occurrence? Such a pathetic state of affairs. This is a short list of words, irritating and overused, in the media.

Councilors gathered at a special Wednesday, Sept. 3, meeting last week thanks to the Labor Day weekend. Bus shelters were a recurring theme throughout the evening, with Councilors Michael Cadigan, Rey Garduño and Don Harris all requesting the city build more in their districts. Cadigan cited e-mails he'd received from constituents complaining about waiting for buses beside 45- to 60-mph traffic without a safe place to stand, often in places without sidewalks.

Sexism and the GOP’s candidate for VP

By Jim Scarantino

Perhaps it required finely tuned feminist radar to detect the media’s sexist treatment of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. I admit, I missed it. But after watching the media’s first week of covering Sarah Palin, I will henceforth pay more attention to claims of media gender bias.

Dateline: Australia—An elementary school in Townsville, Queensland, has banned cartwheels, handstands, somersaults and any form of gymnastics at recess. According to the Townsville Bulletin, a single forward roll is enough to get kids kicked off the playground at Belgian Gardens State School. Parent Kylie Buschgens told the newspapershe was dumbfounded when her daughter Cali, 10, was told she could no longer do cartwheels, even on the grass. Cali and a friend were busted under the school’s new zero-tolerance policy. Ms. Buschgens met with school principal Glenn Dickson and was told gymnastics activities were a “medium risk level 2” that posed a danger to children. “I said [to the principal], ‘What if she keeps doing a handstand?’ and he said she’d get into trouble,” Ms. Buschgens said. “I asked what would happen if she was a repeat handstand offender, and he said that would be defiance and it could lead to her being suspended.”

[Re: The Real Side, "Obama the War President," Aug. 28-Sept. 3] Nice try, Jim Scarantino, but we are not that stupid. Obama's war? The illegal, unjustified invasion of Iraq belongs squarely to George Bush and the army of Republican sycophants (officeholders, voters and political commentators) who cheered him on.